Filling your senses with the overflowing beauty of wild orchids, yet being amazed by the humblest weed at the same time.
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All photos Copyright DWS2016

Sunday, 23 October 2016

There is a large arable field just North of Longfield that has been left fallow for well over a year. I thought it might have some interesting arable plants now so I had a quick visit to see what I could find. Apart from being a nice open space, it doesn't look much does it. However, when the farmer leaves it a while before spraying, the seed bank in the soil comes to life. Longfield can be seen to the left of the photo.

Scarlet Pimpernels are almost guaranteed to be present and can be found in a variety of habitats from pavement cracks to shingle areas. However, arable field edges are their stronghold. Always keep a look out for subspecies, such as the rare Blue Pimpernel or a rose coloured variant.

Anagallis arvensis subsp arvensis

There were at least a thousand of these Small Toadflax plants scattered throughout the field, with their snap draon type small flowers being distinctive.

The flowers are mostly white, but look closer and you'll see pink and lilac shades as well.

Chaenorhinum minus

Yellow crucifer flowers of the cabbage family can be tricky to identify. This is Black Mustard, it's seeds being pressed tightly to the stem, topped by tiny four petalled flowers. Without seeds present, identifying them can be difficult!

Brassica nigra

I was quite surprised to find several Great Willowherbs in the field, usually a waste ground species. I guess the field being fallow for over a year has given seed the opportunity to grow and flower.

Epilobium hirsutum

Here's another colonist from a nearby chalk meadow, Wild Carrot. As the flowers go to seed, the whole flower head curls up into a ball, very distinctive, as are the branched large bracts below the flowers.

Daucus carota

I then found my first rare plant, Dwarf Spurge, on the Kent Rare Plant Register. They are quite insignificant, as the name suggests, and easily missed.

I had found some about a mile away, but this was the first time I had found them here.

Euphorbia exigua

Here's the whole plant, it's past its best and going to seed now.

There were masses of Black Bindweed in the field, not surprising as these can often survive moderate spraying.

Fallopia convolvulus

Here's another plant I didn't expect to find in the middle of an arable field, Hedge Bedstraw. It really is surprising how quickly nature can come back if left alone.

Galium album

This is a common plant in fields, the Sun Spurge. You can just see the orange dots of a rust fungus that attacks these as they die off.

Euphorbia helioscopia

Another yellow crucifer was present in large numbers, Annual Wall Rocket. Key to identifying these are the basal leaves which are long stalked with broad side lobes.

If the stem is woody, consider Perennial Wall Rocket.

Diplotaxis muralis

Common Fumitory is present in most arable fields. They are very tricky to identify. To do so take measurements of all parts of the flower, especially the sepals. Note the shape and colours of the flower parts, better still, take detailed photos to work it out later.

I had time to do neither this day, so haven't identified it firmly to species level.

Fumaria sp

In one smaller area of the field, there was a different soil. Instead of poor soil on chalk, soil had been imported by the farmer to enrich it. There was a gone over crop of spring onions there.

The flora changed with the soil, and Common Mallow was prevalent.

Malva sylvestris

Then I spotted another Mallow within the group, much smaller with delicate white flowers, streaked with lilac.
It was the delightful Dwarf Mallow

Malva neglecta

Here and there were bunches of Common Poppies. It's past the time when some fields turned red with them, but they are always nice to see.

Papaver rhoeas

Also in this area were plenty of these Redshank and the closely related Pale Persicaria

Persicaria maculosa

Knotgrasses were ever present and were barely noticed. But in this area I noticed these looked different, with red tipped tepals and long straggly stems, quite unlike the normal Knotgrass.

Just to check I picked some "normal" Knotgrass and compared the two, they were definitely very different.

My County Recorder later identified it as Cornfield Knotgrass, a first for the area and a Rare Plant Register find.

The tiny nutlet poking out from the calyx is distinctive as well as the red tipped tepals.

I'd not seen them before.

I guess the seed was in the soil that the farmer used to enrich his field?

Polygonum rurivahum

As I left this area, I headed towards the field edge and a hedgerow. Along the way I found some Lucerne still in flower. An attractive plant of the pea family, it is often sown as a fodder crop. It can also be found on many roadside verges in this area.

Medicago sativa subsp sativa

Here's a relative of Lucerne, the Spotted Medick. It's trifolium type leaves spotted with black triangles. You often find them in lawns!

Medicago arabica

Another common pavement "weed" present in large numbers was Annual Mercury. You may never notice its flowers unless you look closely, as there aren't any petals and the whole plant is a pale green colour.

Mercurialis annua

At the base of the hedgerow were several Wild Basil still in flower, a classic wildflower on chalk.
Marjoram was also present, but now in seed.

Clinopodium vulgare

Black horehound was also still going in the hedgerow, it's related to Dead-Nettles and is very common. If you crush a leaf and smell it, it gives off quite a rancid smell, but bees and insects seem to like the flowers.

Ballota nigra

I could have gone on quite a bit longer with flowers such as Bristly Oxtongue, Rough Hawkbit, Shepherd's Purse and so on. It just goes to show the diversity of a single field when given a chance and not sprayed into oblivion every year.

Sunday, 16 October 2016

This blog is about a month out of date but I've finally got around to writing it!
I walked this country park on the banks of the tidal Medway recording plants as I went. The OS square to the West of the car park was under recorded, so that gave the trip a more defined purpose.

There's a reasonable amount of salt marsh to explore when the tide is low as it was today, and scrubby areas inland.

The most obvious flowering plant on the salt marsh edges was Sea Aster. They are like a saltwater tolerant version of the Michelmas Daisies.

There are two forms, one with lilac rays and the other with the rays absent.

I only found the rayed form here today.

Aster tripolium var. tripolium

Glassworts were common too. I keep missing the Kent Botanical Recording Society field trips that concentrate on this species. If I could have attended I would be able to identify each type.

Believe it not, this one was in flower! On the lower branch are two tiny yellow anthers poking out. They don't have petals at all.

Salicornia sp

This is another "flower" that gets covered in salt water twice a day on Spring tides. It's a Sea Purslane. It forms large colonies near the high tide mark on many estuaries in Kent.

Atriplex portaculoides

Another Atriplex often found in these habitats and of late, along salted roads inland, is the Grass-leaved Orache. This is always upright and often tall, as here. The leaves are pretty much uniform and strap like, making it easy to tell apart from the more complicated inland Oraches.

Atriplex littoralis

The final flower of the salt marsh I photographed was perhaps the most beautiful, it's Golden Samphire. It's relatively common along the Thames and Medway estuaries but is on the rare plant register as it is declining both locally and nationally.

Inula crithmoides

So I left the shoreline and headed inland to see what I might find. The scrubby land didn't look like it would offer much as it was full of brambles and nettles.

This is Common Ivy, found almost everywhere, but the flowers at this time of the year are an important food source for bees and insects.
Red Admiral butterflies also feed on them prior to finding a place to hibernate.

Hedera helix subsp helix

Creeping, Marsh and this Spear Thistle still had the odd flower up.

Cirsium vulgare

On one of the Creeping Thistles I found this Thistle Gall. I forget now which insect causes them, but I don't see them that often.

I found a small patch of Common Toadflax, a delightful native wildflower that also looks good in any garden. I have some self sown in my own garden as well.

Linaria vulgaris

My attention was drawn to a few bright blue flowers of Chickory that I spotted in the long grasses. A pleasant surprise as it hadn't been recorded here before and is another Kent RPR species.

Cichorium intybus

It seemed that the taller wildflowers did better in this habitat. This is Tansy, which is rather like a rayless Daisy and it has very distinctive leaves.

Tanacetum vulgare

Below is a close up of the fower heads showing them to be multiple flowers and not just one single flower. A boon for bees and insects.

This attractive pea is Lucerne, a common roadside plant in Kent and often planted in fields as a fodder crop along with other pea family plants such as Clovers.

Medicago sativa subsp sativa.

There is a yellow version as well, othrwise known as alfalfa with its well known seeds!

This was my final photograph here, a beautiful Common Flax. I found it by a small pond which has a walkway around it. Flax is another flower sown as a crop but there were no fields close by. I suspect it grew here as a remnant of a bird seed mix. Nonetheless, it was nice to see.

Linum usitatissimum

So ended my walk where I managed to record 87 species for the BSBI 2010-2020 atlas, several of which had not been recorded before.

About Me

The realisation that there is no such thing as a weed; that a Dandelion is as beautiful as a wild orchid; and passing that joy of discovery onto others is a wonderful gift to give them. All these things have led me on a journey of botanical discovery and the desire to inspire others to do likewise.
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